Chapter Fourteen
Time To Leave
Sue and I looked at each other with hopeful, but sad expressions. Then Sue briefly glanced over in the direction of our spaceships. I did too and saw our ship rising up into the air. Sue and I fully embraced each other again. Bev sat Panny on the table. Bev got up as Til sat Lika on the table. Panny and Lika came together and embraced each other a little as Zem got up too. As Zem and Bev came around the table, Til and Mav got up too. Then they came around the other side of the table. Sas went over to Pim and Mim. They all circled around each other’s surfaces at differing angles. Tal went over to San and Pan and did the same thing. Zem, Bev, Mav and Til stopped near the ends of the table. Then Zem said in a joking around, but kind manner, “Would you prefer walking, or kicking and screaming.” This made us all laugh as Sue and I parted a little. Afterwards, Sue and I looked at each other with amused expressions that were tinged with a little bit of sadness. Sue got up reluctantly and then stepped over to Til. They embraced each other.
Then Sue said, “I’m going to miss you so much!” Bev also stepped over to them as I stood up. Til said, “We’re going to miss you too!” Bev put an arm on the both of them. Sue and Til put an arm around Bev and brought her into the hug. They all had their eyes tightly closed with slightly emotional looks on their faces. Zem and Mav looked at them with sentimental smiles on their faces. I had a bit of a sentimental look on my face. Though it was tinged with a little sadness at the thought of parting. After a few moments, Bev said, “Til and I will come visit you. But you won’t know we’re there.” They all parted their hug enough to smile sentimentally at each other. Though their looks were still tinged a little with sadness at the thought of parting. Sue then hugged Bev a little and said in an emotional voice, “That would be wonderful! But I wish I could know!” They hugged for a few moments. Bev and Sue then parted a little. They all looked at each other with slight smiles and slightly sad expressions. Bev said, “You will at least learn about it later. Because there will be one visit where Zem and I will reveal ourselves.”
Bev then grinned. The rest of us grinned too as Bev then said, “I can’t wait to see the expressions on your faces!” Sue said with a bit more happiness in her voice, “I can’t wait either!” This caused a bit of a chuckle. Afterwards, as we all grinned, Til said, “I want to see it too!” Mav’s grin turned to a smile as he said to Til, “If Zem and Bev want us along. Erik and Sue are after all Zem and Bev’s humans.” Til’s grin turned to just a smile too as Bev smiled at Mav and said, “You two have to be there now too.” Mav and Til grinned. Which made Bev grin too. Sue and I’s grins got a little bigger. Sue then gave Til a kiss on the cheek and Til then gave Sue a kiss on the cheek. Then they hugged again. As they did so, Til said, “Thank you again for your presents.” After they parted, Zem stepped over to me and put a hand on my shoulder. Sas parted from Pim and Mim. Tal parted from San and Pam. Tal and Sas came together a few feet from their parents. Zem said with a slight smile and a compassionate look on his face, “Time to say goodby.” At this point, the back of our spaceship was on the other side of the railing. The back ramp had come down and formed into steps that led from the deck to the spaceship. The interior was of course illuminated.
Then Bev and Sue took a step back from Til. Pim and Mim came down to the table. Pim started to levitate up all the cups. Except for Mav and Til’s. Mim levitated up all three bouquets. Til looked at them and then over to Bev. Til said, “Can I keep Panny and Lika’s mugs? They’re so cute!” We all grinned as Bev said, “Sure.” Pim levitated Panny and Lika’s little mugs back onto the table. I stepped over to Til and gave her a hug. I said, “I’m going to miss you guys!” As we hugged, Til said, “We’re going to miss you guys too!” We parted after a couple moments. Then I gave Til a kiss on her cheek. Til then gave me a kiss on my cheek. As I held Til’s shoulders, I briefly looked from Til to Mav and nodded my head over to him. Then I said to Til, “You make sure you take care of that big lug.” We all laughed a little. Mav and Til took on big grins and Til said, “Oh. I will.” I then stepped over to Mav and said with a grin as we shook hands, “Thank you again for everything.” Mav said, “It’s been our pleasure. Til and I have never been around anybody who so often made us want to disappear to someplace more private.” This caused us all to laugh. Afterwards, Mav and I shook hands a couple more times.
While I continued to hold Mav’s hand, I said with a grin, “And you be nice to Til. Or you’re going to have me to deal with.” Sue quickly added, “Both of us.” With Sue and I’s powers being like a worm’s compared to a Reall’s, I expected the idea I and then Sue making a threat to any of these gods to invoke laughter. Which I of course was ready to quickly join in on. But instead, Mav got a sentimental look on his face. Which quickly spread to all of us. Mav and I gave each other one of those man hugs as we continued to hold each other’s hand. Sue and Til also hugged again. Mav and I parted and released each other’s hand. Then Mav put a hand on my shoulder and said, “No need to worry. Til’s happiness is always my main concern.” Mav let go of my shoulder and Sue stepped over to him. Sue gave Mav a hug and said, “Thank you for everything! You’ve been wonderful!” Mav hugged Sue back and said, “You’ve both been great too.” Then Sue gave Mav a kiss on the cheek and they parted. Taking a couple steps back, Sue came to stand by me and we put an arm around each other’s lower backs. Til stepped over to Mav and they put an arm around each other’s lower backs too.
As Bev went over to Zem, Mim levitated Til’s bouquet to her and Sue’s to her. Til released Mav and Sue released me. They took their bouquets as us guys put an arm around our girls’ shoulders. Mim also brought Bev’s bouquet over to her as Til and Sue briefly smelled their bouquets. Bev took her bouquet looked over at Panny and Lika. They jumped off the table and made their way toward the ship. After briefly giving her bouquet a smell, Bev said gently to Sue and I with a look of sentimental compassion on her face, “Come on you two. We need to go.” We both briefly glanced at Bev and then back to Mav and Til. We all had sentimental looks on our faces that were tinged with a little sadness. Zem and Bev started toward the ship. Panny and Lika were sitting at the top of the ramp with a bit of a melancholy countenance to them. Sue said with some sadness in her voice, “Goodby.” With some sadness in my voice too, I just said, “By.” Mav said, “Goodby.” Til said, “Till we meet again.” Sue looked up at San and Pam and said, “Goodby.” I said to them, “It’s been wonderful.” San said, “Goodby.” Pam added, “For now.”
Then Sue and I turned to Tal and Sas. I said to them, “By you two.” Sue said, “You’re both dears.” Tal said, “Thank you. By for now.” Sas said, “Goodby dears.” Sue and I turned and made our way toward the ship too. With our faces looking somewhat downward. Sue and I briefly turned our saddened expressions to each other as we went. Both of us knew that soon, for a time, we would be parting. This caused us to walk up the steps almost like we were making our way toward a guillotine or hangman’s noose. I would have liked to have had one more intimate encounter with Sue before we went back to earth. But I guess it just wasn’t meant to be. Zem and Bev had stopped when they got a step into the ship and turned around. Both of them were closer to the maketake machine. Pim and Mim went toward the instrument panel of the ship. With Pim levitating the mugs below him. Zem and Bev had compassion and a little bit of sadness on their faces as they watched Sue and I come aboard with downtrodden faces.
When Sue and I stepped into the ship, we forced a slight smile to Zem and Bev. They gave us slight smiles too, with compassion still on their faces. Sue and I turned around and gave saddened smiles to Mav, Til, San, Pam, Tal and Sas. Then Sue briefly glanced at the bartok in the distance. Seeing Sue do so, I did too. The bartok were all relaxing around their campfire. They had started five smaller fires on the inside edge of the original larger one. Not being completely dark, this cast some light on them. Lega, Gwean and Heag were admiring their weapons. A few of the others were at this moment holding mugs. The light was fading at the horizon. We could still make out some multa out in the lake. There was a faint purplish light showing on the mountain peaks. The moons had risen a little higher in the sky. They showed with more of a whitish color. There were of course some stars showing in the sky. Sue looked back at Mav and Til with a slight smile and a sentimental look on her face. Then Sue said to them with a slightly louder than normal voice, “Tell the bartok I said goodby.”
This brought smiles to everybody’s faces as we all looked at Sue. Zem thought to Sue and said, “You can tell them yourself. There’s time.” Sue and I had turned our smiles to Zem as he thought to us. Til thought too and said, “I’m sure they will appreciate it.” As we looked back at Mav and Til, this made Sue and I’s smiles a little bigger. Sue thought to Til, “What should I say.” Til said, “Just think to them, “bartok.” Once you have gotten their attention, think, “Ubly bartok.” You can wave too.” Sue said, “Ok.” Then we all turned our attention to the bartok. Sue said, “Bartok.” All the bartok turned in our direction. Those holding things sat them down. Some of them moved a little to make room to bow in our direction. Sue said, “Ubly bartok.” As Sue held her bouquet in one arm, Sue waved at them. They raised themselves to look at us as I waved at them too and said, “Ubly bartok.” Seeing us waving, they waved too. One of the Nal made their voices audible to us. With humble, grateful and sincere sounding bartok voices, they said things like, “Ubly gutta Sue! Ubly gutta Erik!”
After getting some of these phrases out, Zem and Bev gave them a wave too. Bev said, “Ubly bartok.” Zem also said, “Ubly bartok.” This of course caused more humble, grateful and sincere statements of goodby to Bev and Zem. They also threw in some extra bows. Then the audio went out and Mav and Til turned back to us. Sue’s expression again turned to one of sentimental sadness at having to say goodby. The rest of us took on similar looks. Though Zem and Bev turned theirs to Sue and I as Sue raised her bouquet and gave it a brief sniff. I caressed Sue’s back and gave the bouquet a sniff too. Smelling the sweet fragrance of the flowers. Mav and Til did the same. Then the girls lowered their flowers a little and we waved at each other. Mav and Til wore slight smiles with compassion and a little sadness on their faces. The ramp started to go up and straighten out. Panny and Lika jumped up on one of the couches. Sue waved at Mav and Til and said with some sentimental sadness, “Goodby.” I also waved at them and said with sentimental sadness in my voice, “Goodby.” Mav and Til waved too.
Mav said with a sentimental voice, “By.” With slightly less sadness in her voice as Sue and I had, Til said, “By dears.” Then Zem and Bev gave one last wave before the ramp blocked our view. Zem and Bev then turned to Sue and I. We turned to Zem and Bev also. Figuring that Sue and I would prefer to spend as much time together as possible, Zem said to Sue and I with a gentle, compassionate voice, “You can take a seat on a sofa.” Then Zem and Bev headed toward the front. Pim and Mim had turned black again and were sitting in their depressions on the front instrument panel. The mugs Pim brought aboard were sitting on top of the instrument panel. Sue and I looked at each other with sadness again fully on our faces and we then again lowered our faces. Then we took hold of each other and went toward the couch on the right. We sat down near the middle. Sue sat her bouquet aside as we looked at each other with sadness on our faces. We took hold of each other’s forearms and held each other a little closer. Then we again turned our saddened faces toward the floor and leaned the sides of our heads together.
As Zem and Bev sat down, Bev sat her bouquet on the instrument panel. Panny and Lika came over and sat on our laps. This caused slight smiles to come over our faces. Sue and I let go of our forearms and petted Panny and Lika. But our sadness was such that not even the attention of Panny and Lika could really cheer us up much. Zem looked back and said to Sue and I, “We’re going to stop for a bit at planet Bev to get your things. We’ll bring them back to the ship with us.” Sue and I looked at them. They were both looking at us with somewhat somber looks on their faces. Bev said, “Maybe we should have grabbed them before, but this won’t take long.” I said, “I don’t mind waiting for the blade to come down. But why don’t you just have a Nal transport them or something. Zem said, “You know how we are. We prefer to do as much as we can by ourselves.” Zem and Bev then gave each other somber looks for a moment. Then they turned back toward the front. A holographic image of stars appeared near the instrument panel. But rather than look at what they were doing, I looked through the front “window” and saw that we were speeding into space.
Off to the left I could see the two moons. After a few extended moments, they quickly faded out of existence. We would no doubt be at planet Bev in a moment. After a few seconds, planet Bev quickly faded into existence. But all the lights inside the ship and on the instrument panel went dark. The pictures of the outside that the side panels showed also went dark. The view to the outside through the front windows was all that remained. Quickly, a blinding flash came in through the windows that lasted a couple of seconds. When the flash subsided, there was a large, light gray ship over ours. From what I could see of it out the front windows, it appeared to be circular. It also seemed to be a little larger than the Pol-Wim. I would guess it was about a third of a mile in diameter. Our ship abruptly jolted like it had been grabbed by something. Sue and I had highly concerned looks on our faces as Sue said, “What is it!” At the same time, Sue and I held Panny and Lika a little more firmly. Zem and Bev were furiously trying to manipulate the control panel in an attempt to get some response from it. Zem glanced quickly back at us with an angry expression on his face and said, “Gitak!”
Then Zem quickly turned his attention back to the control panel. Being incredulous that the Gitak would dare mess with the Reall, I said, “This isn’t another virtual reality thing is it!?” While still trying to get some response from the control panel, Zem just said angrily without looking back, “I wish it was!” I could see that the ship that had grabbed us started to move toward planet Bev. After a little more trying to get some response from the control panel, Zem angrily struck it with the bottom of his fist and said, “They have to be fucking insane!” Zem and Bev both glanced at Pim and Mim for a moment. They rose from their places in the control panel and hovered near the ceiling above them. Bev turned to us with a worried look on her face. This of course frightened Sue and I. Because anything that could cause a Reall to be worried had to be really bad. Zem shot an angry glare at Panny and Lika. Though he of course wasn’t angry at them. After a moment, they jumped from Sue and I. They scampered to the space between the ends of the couches and the back of our ship. They appeared to be hiding.
Zem looked at Sue and I in the same manner. I got an angry look on my face too. Simply because whatever made Zem angry made me angry too. Though Sue still looked frightened. Zem thought to Sue and I with an imperative edge to his thought. Though it seemed somehow muted. Zem said fairly quickly with an imperative edge to his thought, “If you can hear me, nod.” Sue and I gave Zem a nod. Then Zem said with the same imperative thought, “I don’t know what they want. But it could get messy. Don’t do anything until you see Panny and Lika attack. Then do the same. It will be the only chance we have.” Zem and Bev went back to trying to get some response to the control panel. Some lights came on briefly, but went dark again. I could see that we were getting closer to planet Bev. Then I stood up and brought Sue up with me. As we moved toward the back of the ship, I looked at Sue with a determined, angry look. Sue looked back at me with a frightened look. Which caused anger at what was frightening Sue to surge through my entire body. I knew I would die before I let any harm come to Sue.
At that moment, a circular area about three and a half feet across blasted open in the middle of the ceiling. I shoved Sue behind me as she screamed and buried her face into my back. Sue also held onto me tightly from behind. Pieces of the ship came crashing to the floor in shards of various sizes. The hole it left behind was clean around the edges. As Zem and Bev stood up and took hold of each other, who I took to be Pim shot toward the opening. As he went into the opening, he fell back out. Though this time he was light gray in color and a little over a foot across. He fell to the floor, bounced once about six inches and rolled a little after he landed again. Immediately, five other spheres light gray in color and about nine inches across came down through the opening. I shoved Sue against the back of the ship with my body and stood in front of her. Three of these different kinds of Nal headed toward the front of the ship. Before they got very far, Mim headed toward them. One of the three other Nal blasted to pieces. Another one of them collided with our Mim and enveloped her. Mim fell to the floor. Enveloped like Pim was.
While this was going on, the other two larger, light gray Nal came and stopped a couple feet from Sue and I at head level. If these could do what I just saw them do, Sue and I didn’t stand a chance. And if these Nal meant to kill us, at least I would die first. But these Nal didn’t do anything. Zem and Bev backed against the lower edge of the control panel as the other Nal approached them. Bev still looked worried and Zem still looked angry. This other Nal stopped about two and a half feet from Zem and Bev. Probably because it knew that Sue and I were no threat, one of the Nal near Sue and I went forward to join the other one. Then a figure came falling feet first through the hole. I couldn’t see it very well because it was largely transparent. Except for the bottoms of its feet, palms of its hands and face. Which looked pretty much like a Reall face with an angry, determined look. It seemed to slow just before it touched the floor. Viewed from above, the bottons of the feet became largely transparent. The Gitak turned toward Zem and Bev. More of its face became transparent when viewed from behind. It was pointing what I assumed to be a largely transparent weapon with both its hands at Zem and Bev.
It stepped aside and forward a bit as another largely transparent figure come down. This one appeared to be pointing a weapon at Sue and I. As it touched down, it stepped a little toward the back and off to the side. Two more came down in the same way. One went toward the front a little and the other moved toward the back a little. Then, what I took to be an officer of some type came through the opening as well. He wasn’t largely transparent. This one came down a little more slowly than the others. I could tell that they indeed looked like Reall. Though his cranium didn’t appear to be quite as large as a Reall’s. He had short, thin, stubby black hair. This officer wore a beret style hat that was black and had four thin gold bands that went around the base. There were four fairly small and thin six pointed stars across the front. This, along with his jacket and pants were made of a slightly shiny material. He had similar gold bands and stars near his cuffs. The jacket he wore was a dark grey Nehru style with a thin collar. It was a decorative, military type of jacket. There were gold and embroidered epaulets on the shoulders. The collar also had four small gold stars on each side near the front that angled slightly downward.
Under this garment he wore a light gray shirt with a collar that sat a little higher than the collar of his jacket. The hemmed fabric joined in the middle. But I couldn’t tell how. This was made of a more cotton like material. The pants were dark gray and nearly pressed. There were three closely spaced, thin gold stripes that went down along the sides. His shoes were black, shiny and appeared to be leather. He wore a somewhat ceremonial belt around his waist. On which hung a ceremonial type of decorative sheathed dagger on one side and a similarly decorative, sheathed, slightly curved sword on the other. With the two handed handle, it reminded me a lot of a Samurai sword. This Gitak was clearly somebody of considerable rank. Though all in all, the uniform seemed a little overly garish to me. When this officer touched the deck, the other soldiers became visible. All of them appeared to be just as tall as Zem. They were holding rifles of some sort that were thin in profile and with no visible magazines. The butts were of a simple folded wire design like I have seen on some human machine guns. Though the wire was a bit thicker. These weapons also had fairly thin straps on them. Which I figured was for carrying these weapons over their shoulders. They wore helmets that resembled the kinds we use, but fit a little closer to their heads. Off the backs of which were cloths something like I had seen the French Foreign Legion use in movies. Except these had a jungle camouflaged pattern on them. Similar to the type that I had seen soldier on earth use. Their shirts, pants and boots were all of a type of camouflage pattern. Around their waists, they wore belts of the same pattern. On which hung utilitarian looking daggers and swords, along with a couple other small pouches. He looked at the soldiers and said something to them in a language that didn’t seem to be like the bits of Reall language I had heard. Two went up to Zem and Bev and two came up to Sue and I. They pulled Zem and Bev apart, as they did with Sue and I. They said something in a language again that I couldn’t understand. But from the commanding tone, the meaning was clear.
Zem and I put up some resistence. Their Nal that was near me gave me a bit of a shock a little like Pim had done to me on earth. I said to the one that took hold of Sue’s arm, “If you hurt her I’ll rip your fucking heart out!” Sue gave me a frightened look as she tried to hold onto my arm. As Sue did so, Sue said, “Oh Erik! What are they going to do!” There were verbal exclamations made by Zem and Bev in their language. Bev’s seemed defiant instead of frightened. Which gave me a little more hope. The soldiers stood behind Zem, Bev, Sue and I and stuck the muzzles of their guns in our backs. I wanted to strike one of these bastards so bad. But according to what Zem said, this wasn’t the time. As the officer went over toward Zem and Bev, Zem and Bev both said something to this officer in their language. The officer answered them in broken English. He said, “You don’t know why we’re here?” Zem and Bev both gave the officer somewhat incredulous looks. Zem glanced and nodded once toward Sue and I as he spoke. Zem said, “You’re committing suicide because of them!?” The officer said in a defiant manner, “We’re not afraid of your technology.”
Then Zem said with his voice and expression seething in anger, “I have to admit your sneaking up on us was a pretty good trick. But I can’t believe that you would waste your one and only chance to use it was because of them.” (Nodding again to Sue and I as he referred to us) Then Zem said, “Before you die, I want to hear from your own lips why.” The officer seemed to be taken a little aback by Zem’s defiance. Quickly recovering himself, the officer pulled out his sword. Holding the hilt with one hand, he held the tip to Bev’s throat. He said, “You want to know why? Because you slapped our kind in the face by bringing humans here and instilling in them the same kind of racist filth you showed to our kind. Which we were willing to let go because you snatched them out of the jaws of death. But now you dare to do the same with other humans?”
Bev said defiantly, “What you call racism we call patriotism! Along with the way the universe works. You Gitak are even more stupid than I thought!” Zem then added, “What we do is none of your business! You’re being here only demonstrates again that our kind were right in separating ourselves from you Gitak.”
The officer lowered his sword and stepped over to Zem. Then the officer gave Zem a hard, backhanded slap across the face. This made every muscle in my body flinch with anger. The Gitak solder poked Zem in the back with the muzzle of his weapon. Noticing my flinch, the Gitak soldier behind me also poked me in the back with the muzzle of his weapon. After the officer struck Zem, he said, “Don’t call us that! We’re Reall damm you!” Zem said, “You may have managed to make yourselves look more like our kind on the outside, but all this shows is that you’re still pure Gitak on the inside!” The officer said something to the soldiers behind Zem and Bev. They quickly slung their weapons over their shoulders. The soldier behind Zem grabbed both of Zem’s wrists and bent his forearms up behind him. The soldier behind Bev bent one of her forearms behind her and held Bev around the throat with his other arm. The officer then took his sword and brought it to Zem’s ear. At the same time the officer grabbed Zem’s ear and pulled it out a little. It was clear that he planned to cut it off.
Bev cried out some sort of expletive words to the officer in their language. Which caused the soldier holding Bev to painfully apply force to her arm. This made Bev grunt with pain. Then Sue yelled out, “Stop it you Gitak nigger fucks!” Sue probably wanted to deflect the officers actions away from Zem. Both Sue and I both received a good shock from their Nal. Despite the pain, I managed to get out, “If we’re the problem, come after us!” The officer gave us a quick glance like we were worms. Then he turned his attention back to Zem and sliced off Zem’s ear. Zem face contorted with agony and he growled with pain as he clenched his teeth. But Zem didn’t cry out. Bev tried struggling a little more. But she was held tighter by the soldier. Then the officer held up Zem’s severed ear to near his mouth and spoke into it. He said, “I don’t care what you say!” Then the officer tossed Zem’s ear aside. He quickly wiped the blood on his sword off on Zem’s sleeve with a quick up and down stroke and expertly put it back into its sheath. The soldier holding Zem released one of Zem’s arms and held Zem around the throat with his arm.
Growling through the pain, Zem said, “I’m going to wipe out your whole filthy species and see that you personally suffer eternal torment!” The officer seemed again to be taken aback by Zem’s defiance. Then the officer said, “The Mind won’t let you do that.” Zem said, “You don’t know the Mind as well as you think you do!” The officer briefly took on a look of someone who opened a can of woop ass they would have been better off not having messed with. The officer then took out his dagger. He then stepped over to Bev and put the edge along her cheek. He said to Zem with a determined look, “Maybe I’ll just have to make you swear not to try such a thing.” Clearly thinking that if he tortured Bev enough, he could make Zem swear to not seek revenge. Zem said, “You can kill our bodies, but not our souls! We will reform ourselves into physical beings elsewhere! And we will come after you! Like it or not, dying is going to be the easy part for you!” Then Zem called out in a way that I could hear both verbally and in my mind. Zem said, “Pim! Mim! Destroy their ship!”
Pim and Mim came spraying out of a hole they apparently forced open in the Gitak Nal that encased them. They quickly expanded out like smoke. It was black in color and some of it covered the other Gitak Nal like soot. The ones that were hovering fell to the floor. They were encased and rendered useless by the Pim and Mim soot. As all this was going on, the officer and the soldiers got shocked looks on their faces. I don’t know if it was because the Pim and Mim were unconcerned with the rest, or if they were simply following orders. But the rest of the Nal smoke quickly retreated through the hole in the ceiling. One by one, the encased Gitak Nal disappeared. A second later, in quick succession, flashes showed in the windows. These were followed by sharp explosions. That was no doubt the end of the Gitak Nal. The officer looked at Zem angrily and said quickly as he pressed the blade he had to Bev’s cheek down harder, “Call off your Nal!” Zem said, “They’re not our Nal any more than we’re their Reall. And you’ve made them angry.” The officer took the dagger from Bev’s cheek. He then grasped one of Bev’s breasts and shoved the blade through it sideways. Bev grunted in agony as her face contorted with pain.
As he did so, the officer quickly said to Bev, “Call off your Nal!” He appeared to twist the blade some as he said this. Bev screamed out something at the Gitak officer in Reall. From Bev’s tone, I could tell that it must have been something of a highly insulting nature. I was just dying for Zem to give the word to go into action. Then an explosion violently rocked their ship. Shooting a short but intense bluish flame down through the hole in the ceiling. The blast stunned me a little as the jolt our ship received threw us all off balance. Panny and Lika leapt out of their hiding spots and in a flash were on the shoulders of the shoulders behind Sue and I. They dug their front paws into the eyes of each soldier from behind and ripped savagely at their ears with their teeth. Both the soldiers cried out in pain. At the same time, Zem shoved himself backward into the soldier behind him. Then Zem delivered a kick to the soldier that was behind Bev. Sue and I also went on the attack. I spun around and knocked the barrel of the gun the soldier that had been behind me to the side. Then I delivered a crushing blow to his face that sent Panny flying. The soldier that was behind Sue had time to grab Lika. He flung her with great force toward the front of the cabin.
At the same time, Sue turned quickly, took hold of the barrel of the weapon and shoved it aside. Then Sue struck the soldier that was behind her in the face. A couple projectiles hit the wall near me that had come from the front of our ship as I grabbed for the weapon of the soldier I had hit. He was out like a light. I quickly retrieved the gun as another two projectiles just missed me. Quickly looking forward, Zem was grappling with one of the soldiers. He had apparently been able to get free and gain enough control of his soldier’s weapon to shoot the soldier that was behind Bev. Bev had managed to pull the dagger out of her breast. She and the officer were fighting over it. The officer appeared to be winning in their struggle. And Zem didn’t appear to be doing al